Interview: Jan Zero talks about Sonus Festival

Music lover, Techno and House DJ, producer, live act performer, radio broadcaster and (former) label owner. In short, if you scratch the surface of electronic music in Croatia, it is very hard not to come across something Jan’s been involved with.

This year he’s part of Sonus Festivallineup and we had the chance to exchange thoughts with him prior his performance.

Electronic Groove:Hi Jan, thanks for the time to chat with us. How are you preparing for Sonus Festival this weekend?

Jan Zero: No problem, it’s a pleasure. Well, I’m playing live again this year and I wanted to do something special. Since I got back from Moondance Festival just a few days ago, I spent most of the time on the studio writing some new pieces of music which I’ll perform just on Sonus. This is my fourth year attending so I pretty much know the vibe and the openness of the crowd, my guess is if it’s going to be intense as years before.

Electronic Groove:Recently Croatia has become one of the most demanded European summer destinations? What are your thoughts about this?

Jan Zero: We do have a beautiful coast so that part is no surprise as there’s plenty of breathtaking locations. Although we had and still have locally organized festivals, the foreign ones brought the game a few levels up and I think it’s a good thing from which we can all benefit. They brought the organizational structure from which local promoters can learn, lineups which all of us can enjoy and great parties for DJs to play. Instead of going abroad to experience the world, now the world is coming to us.

Electronic Groove: Can you name a couple of tracks that you might play at Sonus?

Jan Zero: I’ll be doing live so it’s going to be exclusively my own material, but some tracks I always perform are “In Plain Sight”, “Small Hands” and “Love’s So Far Away” (that has the same title as Donald Byrd’s masterpiece).

Electronic Groove:Speaking about local talent, can you recommend us any Dj or Producer that we should follow?

Jan Zero: Borut Cvajner is one of my favourite DJs on the planet and Cuisine Dub is constantly surprising me with his productions. I listened to him play live last weekend on Moondance Festival and he was very interesting. Also, there’s a guy name is Moz from Orahovica who makes wonderful stuff which I really enjoy. But truth be said, there’s a lot of talent coming from our little country and I try to present most of the ones I like through my radio show, Cycle Sessions. Also, I’m just in the middle of packing before I go so I know I’m forgetting to mention tons of them.

As for the labels, make sure to have a listen to Vakum Records, Fields & Forests, Burek/Barba/Pomalo family, Out Of Place, House Is Ok, Legalize Lambada.

Electronic Groove: What’s in the pipeline for Jan Zero in 2016?

Jan Zero: A lot of gigs, some records coming out on end of 2016 – beginning 2017, working on a live show with a jazz keyboard player Regis Kattie and also on my own solo live, hopefully getting some Cinnamon Ensamble material finished, doing the weekly radio show, teaching electronic music history class at EMI Institute and trying to spend as much time possible in the studio. There are two new collaborations I can’t wait to start working on, one with a great young rapper/producer Tone Tuoro and one with Cuisine Dub. It should be a good year.